


Memory Lane

by orphan_account



Category: The L Word
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-12 17:24:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10495935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Molly goes through Shane's Chart.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The Author gleefully ignores Season 6.

Molly can't help the giggle threatening to bubble from her lips.

"Hey, Shane, I found something pretty interesting."

Her girlfriend's hands still on the camera lens she had been fiddling with as she looks up with one corner of her mouth twitching in a smirk. "Oh, yeah? What is it?"

"Come over here."

She complies, an eyebrow raised in suspicion as she takes the offered headphones and listens.

Molly's hands are clasped over her mouth to keep from laughter, intent on watching every reaction of hers.

Not even thirty seconds in, confusion and concentration fall away from her face as she drops the headphones on the ground like she's been burned.

She blinks, startled. "Shane, what-"

Shane is on her feet and before Molly can even begin to form any questions she hears the front door slam shut.

She sighs, shuts the laptop, slings a bag over her shoulder and goes to follow her, but sees no sign of her by the time she has gone out from the house.

Statistically speaking, the Planet is her best bet at finding any lesbian around the West Hollywood area, so she searches her pockets for change in anticipation of Kit's glorious blend of caffeine during the taxi drive into town. No point in going back to fetch her phone and try to call her since she might run into her at any moment now.

To her disappointment, the brunette is nowhere in sight, but as she accepts her cappuccino with a distracted smile, she spots a familiar blonde and that is as good as it gets.

"Hey!" She calls out, making herself at home in grabbing the neighboring chair. "Where's Tasha?"

The podcast presenter grins. "Molly, hi! She's been called into duty, some sort of burglary. I mean, they usually wouldn't need her on call because they have enough people there and it's nothing too dramatic like a murder, or something, but it's Tasha, so of course she has to be overeager and try to impress everyone. As if she even needs to. Honestly, if the army chick isn't good enough for the damn police, who is?"

The excited babble paints a genuine smile on Molly's face before she can get enough of a word in sideways to agree.

"How are you?"

She bites her lip. "Well, can I- can I maybe show you something? I thought it was harmless, but Shane kind of freaked-"

"Oooh, juicy. Shoot."

The laptop is placed on the table and soon shows the words "God-des and She" subtitled with "Lick It" on its screen. Without further comment, Molly hands her a pair of headphones and waits for her to listen.

Alice bites her lip and avidly avoids eye contact, so Molly takes a gulp from her coffee cup that is much too hot.

"What? What did I do? What is it about this song? It's just a dumb, fun song about sex. I-"

"Whistler. Shane's bachelorette party."

"Oh." 

She has known her girlfriend's reputation far before she came to know the person behind it, of course, but the shock still renders her momentarily motionless. Any pretence of nonchalance melts away.

"Shane was married?"

Alice runs a hand through her hair. "No. She bailed and left her at the alter."

Fuck.

"Look, Molly, I probably shouldn't be the one to be talking to you about this. Ask her." 

The blonde picks up her bag and shuts off her own laptop, but not before allowing her a glance at the screen.

"See you."

Alice waves a goodbye with an awkward smile and exits the café. 

Molly curses. She hadn't meant to bring up any old wounds or unpleasant memories.

But for the time being, she has to satisfy an immediate curiosity. Very grateful for a stable internet connection, she starts typing.

She has heard the word OurChart thrown around in casual conversation a lot, but somehow has never been to bothered to actually research it. She knows it's more or less an online community for lesbians, which prior to meeting Shane she had never considered to be even close to relevant to herself, being a totally heterosexual woman and all.

Sure enough, OurChart greets her with a multitude of articles ranging from politics to the best method of cleaning a strap-on, but what catches her eye is the caption "Hook-Ups". She vaguely remembers getting an e-mail requesting her permission to add her to a constellation, which she had dismissed as spam and deleted.

The sheer amount of chaotic arrangements of shining dots like stars has her blinking a few times before her eyes can focus to make out names, some more interconnected than others.

She starts easy, typing in "Tina Kennard" into the search bar. Sure enough, a picture of the movie executive pops up along with a number of names around it. Molly counts a total of three women with surprise before she remembers that Tina had once thought herself to be straight. She can relate.

One click takes her to Bette's page. A fair amount of more names in comparison to her partner. Alice, really? As strange as the thought of them as a couple seems, the fact that they are still great friends makes her smile.

Molly sighs and briefly considers waving over a waitress to bring her a drink. No use laying off the inevitable.

The name Shane McCutcheon lights up her screen with a number so close to a thousand placed below her smiling face that it makes Molly dizzy. The Fonz or not, warnings and reputation or not, it's a lot to take in. Browsing through her entire constellation would not only have her sitting here for the next few days, it would also be of next to no use. She doubts she knows even five women in that solar system.

Her fingers seem to have a mind of their own, however, when she sees a flash of blonde hair that is strikingly familiar.

Cindy Annabelle Tucker. The lover has a name, then?

Right next to her, a shadow clinging to her even as the lines highlight both of their connections to Shane rather than each other, Dawn Denbo. The SheBar girls? It would certainly explain the latter's aggressive behavior towards Shane on Turkish lesbian oil wresting night.

She quickly moves on, which lands her with Nikki Stevens's picture staring up at her, grinning widely. Moving on.

Jennifer Schecter, of course. She'd heard all about the Lez Girls party disaster, the week-long Cold War between the two best friends that had temporarily split the group apart until Jenny let Shane back into their house. She'd heard about how they had hooked up only to laugh it off, recognizing that their relationship would be better off as platonic and that the rule still applies that just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Finally, Jenny's anger had simmered down enough for her to reveal Molly's letter leading to a long late-night conversation, a shouting match with her mother and the best use of the privacy of Shane's photography studio as of yet.

Well, if she counts herself, she guesses she does get her five familiar women together after all.

Molly wracks her aching brain, trying to remember if anyone has ever mentioned the name of Shane's ex-fiancee around her.

Cherie Jaffe? No, that was that rich, middle-aged Hollywood housewife that had thrown her away like a piece of gum that had lost its novelty flavor when their affair had been found out only to waltz into her old hair salon post-divorce with an invitation to her beach house that left no room for interpretation of her motives.

Paige Sobel? No, since their relationship had apparently ended with Paige willing to overlook one specific instance of cheating with the realtor of their house, but Shane letting her go to find someone more deserving. She wonders what her mother might say to that story.

Carmen. The woman Shane would have married is called Carmen De La Pica Morales and she is beautiful. 

Molly closes her hook-ups page before her imagination can conjure her up in a wedding dress with tears in her eyes.

Her mother is no more than an afterthought, a distraction.

"What the  _FUCK,_ Alice?!"

* * *

She finds Shane lounging on the couch, mindlessly flipping through the cooking channels, a dead giveaway that she is in no way paying attention to the bright shapes and colors on the screen.

"Where did you go?"

 _Click. Click._ "Supermarket. I was out of cigarettes."

She sees the evidence of the shopping trip gathered in the ashtray on the table as she approaches and snorts.

"Okay, but why did you run away like that?"

_Click. Click. Click. Click._

Molly is ready to throw that remote control out of the window, but she only groans. "I talked to Alice."

"And?"

"Whistler, huh?"

That gets her attention so fast that for a moment she has her worried about the possibility of whiplash. "What the hell did she tell you?"

The growl in her voice makes her anxious, so she raises her hands in surrender. "Not much. She actually wanted to leave as soon as possible and said I should talk to you about this. So-"

There is a cigarette in between Shane's slender fingers and Molly snags the lighter from her other hand before she has a chance to use it.

"Talk to me."

"What is there to talk about?"

"You didn't go through with it."

She grabs her wrist more roughly than absolutely necessary to get to her object of desire. The smoke trails a drunken path towards the ceiling.

"No."

"Why?"

Shane is as angry as she has ever seen her. "What the fuck does it matter? Your mother already gave me a pep-talk about how I suck at relationships."

Molly winces. "I'm sorry, that's not what I meant, I just-"

A wave of the hand. "I fucked up. I thought I would spare her by leaving before it was too late. I didn't want-"

"To be like your father?" She feels a sharp pain in her throat as her voice cracks and Shane bows her head, strands of hair obscuring her face.

She reaches out, gently tilting up her girlfriend's chin to look into her eyes. 

"Hey. You're not like that piece of shit."

Shane doesn't say anything, simply rubs at her eye and puts out the cigarette.

Molly puts her hands on both of her shoulders. "Look at me. You're not. I know you're not just going to bail on me. You care about people, Shane. Your father only ever cared about himself."

She is met with confusion when she breaks out into laughter before she finally chokes out, "Both of our parents have no fucking idea about us."

Shane smiles, then, a mere suggestion of the variation that lights up her entire face and makes Molly think that she is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen, but it's enough.

"And hey, that song _is_  pretty funny."

Molly grins even as she leans in to kiss her.


End file.
